The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-12-31

VI A-e''g >o''s>
ton - Proper Respiration - Value OF
yoweis and ConsOnants.
II is altogether useless. nay, even in high
degree injurious, TO scold, Or, worse still,
strike child for n defective utterance or
suffering. 1t is requisite that those who
surround such child should DO most gentle
and calm, for everything harsh or abrupt
startles. and nothing is more adapted TO pro
mote suffering than terror and fear.
With grown up persons or with children
between $ and II years explanations or
prescribed rules may exercise beneficial
effect; with children below 5 years this
is altogether useless Here only the means
that nature prescribas can be aDplied-that
is, imitation and habit. Whatever a child OF
such tender age secs or nears it initiates,
and very often with surprising fidelity.
Hence the creation of a d.aiect which Is
spoken by the children just as by the parents.
The persons surrounding the child are every
thing in its development, and it depends
principally on them how its natural abilities
are developed and what defects make their
appearance Persons in contact with child
of this age ought not to h2vcdofcctS Of any
kind, as, for instance, in breathing, in the
production of voice in speaking and in Ian
guage. They ought not TO speak too rapidly,
too hastily or in detached phrases the child,
forced by nature TO rely on imitation, will
assume all these defects Hence let the fam
ily he very careful that the child hears only
good speaking.
As soon as a mother perceivoS that child
has the habit of repeating, and quickly re-
pcating, syllableS or letters, or, indeed, of in
correctly pronouncing words or syllables or
letters she must not let this pass by un-
noticed, or even, perhaps, laugh at the mat
ter in amusement, mimicking the incorrectly
spoken words and exaggerating the defects,
but she must with the greatest calmness, and
without startling the child by too sudden in
terruption slowly and distinctly utter in cor
rect manner the wrongly pronounced word,
syllable or letter, and cause the little one to
repeat it in like manner. Let the mother,
however, be careful not to do this with "a
forced dstinctness Of utterance, for, as the
child will initiate her, it will now fall into
the error of a1fectation, which will increase
just as much as any other defect. If the
mother has failed to understand the child, let
her cause it slowly co repeat its words, al
ways, however, without startling it by too
sudden or violent commands and let her
make il rule never to comply with the wish
Of child which it has not clearly and dis
tinctly uttered. A story is told Of mother
who cured her child of suffering by forcing
it to pronounce everything in long drawn,
almost singing, manner For instance:
please l-e-e me have an apple" Not
until the child had thus spoken was its wish
complied with. Such positive determination
is absolutely Indispensable to mothers and
teachers.
Though, as l have already said, rules and
laws are of no avail in the case Of O child of
from to 6 or 7years, yet it must be accus-
toned to o certain fixed manner Of utterance.
Above all, it must be accustomed always to
take breath before beginning to speak,
whereby it gains air, time and tranquility
to speak. When person wishes TO speak he
must first take breath. This the child usu-
ally fails to do; 1t begins with half filed,
sometimes with nearly empty lungs, to ex-
press its thoughts, and hence, Of course, is
forced after one or two words to take breath
convulsively in order to continue to SPEAK
for instance: ''Ifyou "a pant for air. want to
go there, etc" This injurious manner of respi-
ration is very prevalent among vivacious
children Of from 3 to years. If this defect
OF speech be not broken, many defects, prin-
cipally among them suffering, will ensue in
time 1t is, therefore, just ct this age that
child requires to be treated with the greatest
attention, love and patience, and must not be
left to ltGclf in the development OF its speech.
4 very good means OF training a child to
speak properly, as indeed to concentrate it.
wandering thoughts, is to tell it stories. Let
the mother relate little stories to the child.
using only easily understood words short
sentences, which can be comprehended by the
child, and let her, ere coming TO the end OF
the tale, cause the child TO repeat part after
part slowly and distinctly, being careful TO
notice every mistake of the child in breath
ing and speaking, as well as in the language
itself, and TO correct every phonetic defect in
Il pleasant and gentle manner not allowing
the slightest mistake to pass unnoticcd. In
this manner, relating aud being related to,
lot the story be brought TO a close
If it is particularly difficult for the child
to utterly correctly certain words, syllablcs
or letters, let the mother repeat these slowly,
'oud!y and distinctly though not in forced
maunerl until the child can pronounce them
correctly. Let the mother be careful that
the vowels are always pronounced clearly
that l., with the correct vowel shades and
With the necessary duration-and the con
sOnant sounds are made short but decided
The letters of the alphabet (vowelS and con
sonantsl require 4 certain time for their
formation and must have n certain duration
in speech The vowel is the carrier of sound:
on it we must tarry when it becomes ncces-
sary; upon it We must put every degree OF
emphasis, every shade of accent for il is tho
expression of our feeling. II is the body Of
the language. The ConsOnant is only the
dress Both must bc rightly produced in or
der to obtain the right results, and. aS Il
beautiful body in an ugly dress loses much
of its beauty, aye, is often dstlgured, so it is
with syllable or word the vowes OF which
are falsely or effectively created. The great
est faults in speaking are too great an ex-
penditure of strength and too long q dura-
ton of time in the creation of tho con-
sonantG. and too short a duration of time.
lack of strength and neglect to give the
vowel shades in the creation Of the vowels.
II is very injurious 10 a child inclined to
Stutter if its quaStIons-and ii puts many
are either not answered at all or very impa-
tienty. The child finally becomes imbued